Toynbee, Philip. "A Clue to Finnegans Wake." Review of Campbell, Joseph;
Robinson, Henry Morton,
A Skeleton Key to Finnegans Wake,
1947.
Times Literary Supplement no. 2382,
(27 September 1947):
492.
"The ingenuity and industry of these two American scholars are astonishing." FW "a belildering masterpiece of compression." J creates "chords" via the puns etc, but they are inharmonious and can create unintended associations. "These private analogies and illustrations are a pedantic appendage.they contribute little or nothing." Joyce has used his book learning without discrimination, treating it with the frivolity of a jigsaw puzzle, laoding his magnificent theme with an impenetrable deadweight of cross-reference." "The language, the tone, the key of the whole book is uniform." Letters in response from F.Garfield Howe, no. 2383 (4 October 1947): 507; from Walter Taplin, no. 2384 (11 October 1947): 521.